A French Grab Bag! - New Arrivals and Returning Favorites
2/25/2025
[Alors, une volontaire?]
In a general effort to move some wines, but also out of sheer excitement over some new arrivals from many of our favorite producers in France, from the Loire Valley to the Rhone Valley, we offer a veritable grab bag of French wines!
Highlights include Champagne Perseval, wines from Mikael Bouges, Michel Autran, Simon Tardieux, Christophe Foucher and Noella Morantin in the Loire Valley, some cases of Christian Ducroux's Esquisse Rosé that we unearthed from behind a pillar in our basement, the stellar Bordeaux from La Grave Figeac, some bottles of Des Tours, and the fascinating wines from Nicolas Carmarans, with special reduced pricing for the masses! Last but not least, the return of Duplessis Chablis, long missing from our shelves. Read more below, and happy perusing!
Domaine Gérard Duplessis
Lillian Duplessis has been in charge of his family estate since 1999, spent ten years making adjustments in the vineyards and has been certified organic since 2013. While the viticulture is progressive, the winemaking is decidedly old-school - the fruit is pressed gently, fermented in steel and aged in a combination of steel and old oak. The wine sees plenty of time on the lees without much stirring and is bottled with only a small sulfur addition.
The result is old-school Chablis, with plenty of acidity, delicate white and yellow fruit and that exposed minerality that can only come from these rocky slopes. These are firm and angular wines that feel as though they could cut glass, simultaneously refreshing and serious. Lillian has a tendency to hold his wines back for longer than other producers. There is a great deal of pleasure to be had now, as well as plenty of reward down the road.
Michel Autran
We first met the affable and intelligent Michel Autran many years ago when he was working with our friend François Pinon in Vouvray, and we were glad to hear that he had obtained parcels of old vines of his own, on great terroir, in 2011.
From importer Michael Foulk: "Michel learned from some of the top Chenin producers in the world, people like François Pinon, Vincent Carême, the Joussets, Frantz Saumon, Ludovic Chanson, and more. In 2011, he was able to purchase just under 1 ha of prime vineyards in Noizay to start, and slowly expanded to 3.8ha today. Farming is completely organic, and due to the steepness of some of the plots, a horse is necessary for the vineyard work. The vines are all very old, between 50-80 years, and all replanting is with massale selection of old vines from Pinon (or by marcottage). Fermentation begins with native yeast in stainless steel before immediately being racked off by gravity into barrel, some new, but most 4-12 years old and coming from friends like Carême or the late Stéphane Cossais."
These are indeed superb Vouvrays, somewhat like the wines of of Richard Leroy in Anjou, in a lighter very chalky and crystalline style - they are beautiful wines that any lover of Chenin Blanc should try!
